


Not Hardly Romantic

by phaetonschariot



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Domestic, M/M, Relationship Negotiation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-02
Updated: 2012-05-02
Packaged: 2017-11-04 17:26:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/396334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phaetonschariot/pseuds/phaetonschariot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a lot of push and pull in this thing between them, trying to figure each other out without tearing it to pieces. They're very different people, in the end. (Also, the goddamned pet names.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Hardly Romantic

Jack was already awake when Ianto opened his eyes despite the small hour, watching him in the way that had made him feel strange and self-conscious until he'd gotten used to it. "Morning, sunshine."

It was too early for this, Ianto decided, and yanked the blanket up to half-cover his head. "You get a four for situational appropriateness," he mumbled, and Jack laughed.

"That's nearly a passing grade."

"Nearly passing is still failing. Believe me, I know."

"You never failed anything. I've seen your school transcript." Jack propped himself up on his elbow, the movement pulling the blanket away, and Ianto gave it up for lost. "What did Lisa call you?"

The humour was gone from his voice, replaced with gentle curiosity as it always was when one of them brought her up. (Provided that it wasn't a fight - Ianto could be vicious when he was angry and they both knew each other too well, which meant cycles of well-aimed verbal attacks followed by a few days of cautious wariness before things went back to normal.) He didn't mind in general - it was sometimes exhausting to pretend she'd never existed just to avoid awkward moments when everyone remembered they were talking about someone they'd shot in front of him - but he wished it would be on a different subject than stupid pet names. 

He dodged the question, and, "Things that are acceptable from a twenty six year old woman just sound creepy from a hundred and… fifty year old? to his much, much younger lover," he pointed out instead, because sometimes it seemed that Jack actually didn't know this stuff.

"Closer to a hundred and seventy." The correction was absent, flippant, and Ianto filed it away for later. "What did you call her, then?"

"Lisa."

"You know, I'm beginning to think you have no sense of romance at all."

"I don't. I'm always the practical one in relationships. I do chore-sharing, holding hair back so it doesn't get vomit on it and trying not to get jealous of the occasional squid." The last was a pointed tease in retaliation for Jack's recent comments about tentacles in a conversation which, Ianto admitted, was mostly Owen's fault. It made Jack grin, and for a moment he thought he was about to tease back with some kind of filthy reminiscence that was a little too outrageous to be true, at least coming from anyone else.

He didn't, though, possibly changing his mind at the last minute. "Chore-sharing?" The tone of his voice was all curiosity about quaint human customs, and for a moment Ianto wondered when the last time he'd been in an actual relationship was. Back in the days when women did the chores, ipso facto? Surely he would have thought _that_ strange, too, though. Not that it mattered - trying to figure out Jack was an exercise in futility at the best of times. It was part of what made him so fun.

"Figuring out people's tolerance levels for mess to avoid fights. Like, Lisa always got annoyed first about food things being left around, but she'd let her dirty clothes pile up in the hamper. So she did the dishes and I did the laundry. And if we were watching videos, I'd always change the tape because otherwise she'd put the old one back in the case for the one she was putting into the VCR, but I'd live off take-out if you let me, so she usually cooked."

"Yeah, I have noticed that." Jack looked thoughtful, and a wee bit troubled, and Ianto was beginning to wish he'd never started off on this tangent. Valuable early-morning snuggling time was wasting. "We don't share chores, though. You do everything."

"No, I don't. I do the cleaning up, you do the world saving. And the coat wearing."

"Technically, that's just my job."

"Technically, cleaning up is my job." He smirked, but Jack still looked like he was dwelling on this a bit, which was stupid, really. "Look, if it bothered me I'd tell you. Do you really think I'd let you get away with it if I thought something was unfair?"

"You can be kinda passive-aggressive," Jack pointed out.

Ianto rolled his eyes, but didn't refute it. It was kind of true, after all, and glossing over each other's flaws wasn't something they'd ever much indulged in. "Exactly," he said instead. "You'd have noticed. If it really bothers you, you could handle dinner more often."

"Done," he agreed immediately, looking a little relieved for a moment before his expression flickered to something sly and purposeful and he slithered closer, pressing them together right down the length of their bodies. He radiated warmth and didn't even complain about the chill when Ianto hiked a foot around his calf. "So, good-lookin'. Want to… _make love_?"

His voice was pitched low, almost as warm as his skin and full of humour, and Ianto had to hold back a laugh. "Nope." He slid a hand down to wrap around Jack's cock, still mostly soft, and met his gaze as he squeezed gently. "Wanna shag?"

Jack shifted even closer and pressed a quick kiss to his nose before Ianto could dodge out of the way. " _Definitely._ "

**Author's Note:**

> In my head, Lisa called him "babe", but really there's all manner of things that could fit.


End file.
